New Aquarium Water Test Help

Hello,

I have setup a new aquarium (the tank previously had an established aquarium but I had to restart it). I have added API Quick Start (30ml) to the 30 gallon tank 2 days ago. At the time, there were 2 neon tetras in the tank from before I reset it, and I have added some fish to it just a few hours ago (4 more neon tetras, 1 molly and 1 platy). The platy and the molly seem to be mostly sitting at the bottom of the tank (although they are upright) and do not seem to be eating currently. The neon tetras however are swimming around fine and are eating good. I have tested the water and got these results, but am having a hard time reading them:

Ammonia:


pH (High Range):


Nitrate:


Nitrite:



From what I see the nitrite is 0ppm, the nitrate is somewhere between 0-5.0ppm which seems to be good. The ammonia looks to be over 0 however and the pH seems to be pretty high. (The normal pH test I didn't post however it read blue (7.6)).

 

New fish are often stressed and it may take them a few days to act normal. Slight ammonia but nothing that should harm your fish.

 

What did you mean by you 'restarted' your aquarium? Did you shake the Nitrate test solution in bottle #2 vigorously for 30 seconds before dripping it into the testtube? Your pH is fine.

 

New fish are often stressed and it may take them a few days to act normal. Slight ammonia but nothing that should harm your fish.

What did you mean by you 'restarted' your aquarium? Did you shake the Nitrate test solution in bottle #2 vigorously for 30 seconds before dripping it into the testtube? Your pH is fine.

Thank you for your replies!
It has since been two days the fish have been in the tank, and they are now swimming around and eating more normally. I believe they were just stressed when they were first added to the tank. Since this is considered an uncycled tank, what would be a good interval of time to test the water parameters? Also, what is the correct amount of water to change in a 30G tank every week?

 

Thank you for your replies!
It has since been two days the fish have been in the tank, and they are now swimming around and eating more normally. I believe they were just stressed when they were first added to the tank. Since this is considered an uncycled tank, what would be a good interval of time to test the water parameters? Also, what is the correct amount of water to change in a 30G tank every week?

When my tanks were cycling I would test the water in the morning when I woke up, and before I went to bed. I always kept a journal of the water parameters from each test to keep a visual track on the cycle. I did additional testing if I wanted to know if I should perform a water change to keep toxins down in the "safe zone" if there were fish in the tank. I've never kept a tank bigger than 12 gallons so I'm not sure how much to change during cycling but I did daily 50% in my cycling tanks if ammonia or nitrites were above .25ppm.